Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Laughing

In a post titled Summer...I expanded on the joys of breathing deep...because it is good for you. Well, no change, still good for you.

But I wanted to share with you something else that is good for you...Laughing!

We all know it...a laugh a day keeps the doctor...wait...not that one!

Whatever the saying, I really can't remember it, laughing makes us feel good. It lowers our blood pressure, lightens our hearts, gives us wrinkles and sometimes splits our lips. And some even say it helps us to live longer.

When we really think about it, when is the last time we really laughed hard? One of those laughs where you can't stop, your sides hurt and you think you might pee your pants, you can't stand up straight, and on lookers have a clear view of your brain through either your nostrils or your throat? One of those laughs where you just let loose? Not a chuckle, a giggle, guffaw, not a laugh that was forced or held in?

Take a moment...be honest with yourself...how long has it been?

I am lucky to have one at least once a week, give or take. I happen to have a really funny sister, you know her, she likes the shoes...and purses, oh the purses! (Maybe she will let me take pictures of them and write a whole post about them...it would be a long one post.) Anyway, Nava, as she is commonly known ( I won't use her other alias' for fear she may be indicted.) is really funny. And not just to me. She is funny to most people, some people don't get her humor, but who wants those people around anyway?

To be fair, my whole family is pretty funny, we laugh a lot...I mean a lot. It comes from my mom, she was always laughing and cracking jokes and was sarcastic with a biting wit that could rival Woody Allen and the likes of Jon Stewart. And to go back even farther, my grandfather, my mothers father was hilarious. Witty, sarcastic, smart, silly, fun, quick, unpretentious with a knack for pointing out the pretenses others were putting on, and painfully honest to point of hilarity.

So funny is in our genes, Nava and me. We talk on the phone all the time, not lately...she went and got a job and that really messes with our humor agenda. But on the whole we chat on the phone or on line several times a week and we always laugh, sometimes we cry, but we like to hide our pain and suffering with sarcasm and humor...you know, the emotionally healthy thing to do.

We have old inside jokes, and stories we tell each other and other people about things that happened to us, our stuff, our animals, our brother, our mom, our dad, our husbands, our kids...deaf people, homeless people, people who stutter, people in speedos, hairy people, people who take themselves seriously, old people, people with things hanging out of their noses, dogs in people clothes, cats who play piano...really nothing is off limits and nothing is sacred when it comes to our weekly humor agenda. It is the way we love, and suffer, and deal with and work through...how we cope. Not that our lives are bad or anything...they are just lives...and we find the funny in them. We laugh at ourselves, at each other, at the world.

Some people may be offend by our joking, but I assure you that none of it is mean spirited or cruel. If we tease...it is because we love. We laugh with love. You aren't really "in" until we make a joke at your expense. But the funny isn't always at the expense of others...just the good stuff.

But honestly, we take what life has given to us, the good, the bad, the ugly...and laugh with it.

Laughing isn't always easy, you have to be relaxed and comfortable, you have to trust your co-laughers.

I think laughing is an art, a skill, something to aim for, a high moral achievement.

Because if we can't laugh at ourselves, each other and the world...what is left to laugh at?

1 comment:

I agree--laughter, and maybe an apple too, keeps the doctor away. I miss my good friend who now lives in Arizona who could ALWAYS keep me laughing. I know I'm way too serious, so I definitely need the laughter to keep me healthy. Kids are always good for a smile--that's one of the reasons I love to be around my students and grandchildren. ss